Obsolete lighting in Charity hospital's operating rooms sometimes "sunburns" the back of the surgeon's neck and the exposed portion of the patient's body, the hospital's board of administrators was told Tuesday night.
Dr. J. L. Powell, in a plea for new operating room lights, said the burns are never serious but, nevertheless, are inconvenient.
Dr. Powell, asistant clinical director of surgery, said the present lights were installed when the hospital was built in 1936. They are outmoded and their manufacturer has since gone out of business, leaving the hospital without spare parts.
"Besides that, surgeons complain that they do not provide adequate illumination," he said. "In operating, they have to pull hard at the incision to get enough light to see inside."
The board, taking his request under consideration, instructed Dr. Powell to make a study of operating room lighting in other hospitals here then submit his recommendations.
Dr. E. L. Leckert, director, told the board the hospital's solution room has been classed as "one of the finest in the world" by an official of the American Sterilizer Company.
Darrell L. Gifford, company manager, wrote in a letter to Dr. Leckett: "It is my understanding that there were 120,500 liters of intravenous solutions prepared in your solution room last year, all at tremendous savings over the amounts you would have had to pay for commerical solutions.
"Your solution room is one of the finest in the world and is a splendid cost reducing, or revenue producing, department in your hospital."
In his report for January, Dr. Leckert said 1941 whites and 4529 Negro patients were admitted to the hospital. There were 113 normal births recorded, of which 132 were of white parents and 981 Neero.
In the department of diagnostic radiology, 14,178 patients were examined, 31,479 films were used and 699 fluoroscopy examinations made, Dr. Lecket said.
A total of 1614 operations was performed and volunteer workers during the month totalled 503. The Charity Hospital Guild wrapped 603,445 bandages and dressings and hospital ambulances made 1676 calls, traveling 842S miles.
In the clinics, the director said: the total number of visits by patients numbered 38,676. The daify average of white patients was 62$ and of Negro patients, 1459.
